You Can Still Shine
by Vile.EXE
Summary: Masumi hasn't been to class in a week, and Hokuto and Yaiba are worried. They're about to find out the reason. No pairings (surprising coming from me, isn't it?).


**Vile: Howdy, folks! Vile here again, and *drops act* Oh, who am I kidding? I can't keep an update schedule for the life of me. I think I'm in a slump again, and after my first one (which was pre-ZEXAL) nearly stopped my fanfiction path cold, I do NOT need a new one! Ugh, thankfully I was able to get something out. This little ficlet is about our favorite trio from LDS - sit down, Shingo, I said TRIO, which you are not part of - and it goes off a little aspect we all probably remember: Masumi's "investment" in Professor Marco. It's clearly not gonna end completely well on any account, but here's my take on the subject. Hopefully the named characters are in-character (excluding Masumi, and you'll see why) for this. The time period is sometime after Marco is freed from his card prison. Enjoy, folks!**

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><p>You Can Still Shine<p>

It seemed like any normal day at LDS: Students bustling, classes going on, Duels happening. But as a bit of dialogue would indicate, something wasn't as it seemed. "…Quarter to 1. She's not gonna show up." Hokuto said to Yaiba as they walked through the building, having checked the time on his Duel Disk.

Yaiba sighed, holding two milkshakes in his hand while Hokuto held one. "How many days has it been since Masumi even came to school last?"

"Five, counting today. I swear, this isn't right." Hokuto replied. "I mean, she's got the best marks in the Fusion Course, AND Marco is out of that card!"

"I hear ya, Hokuto, Masumi is acting real weird lately." Yaiba said, sipping one of the milkshakes. "First she's all excited that this craziness got resolved, enough that her already-good grades skyrocketed, and then it's a whole week of no-show. What is she doing that she doesn't even let us know what's she's do-" The last part of his sentence was cut off as someone shot right by him, sideswiping him. "Whaa-aa-aa-aa!" Yaiba wobbled on one foot for a bit, knocked off-balance.

Hokuto, after getting past that shock, turned to watch the retreating form. "…Masumi?" He wondered as Yaiba managed to right his balance, not spilling his milkshakes.

"W… What was THAT for?" Yaiba cried, but he quickly lost interest in his own question when he saw cards litter the floor of Masumi's retreat path. What surprised both him and Hokuto were the exact cards that fell: All of them were either her Fusion Monsters or her Fusion Summon cards.

The two boys looked at each other briefly with dumbfounded looks, but after a few seconds, they nodded. "Grab 'em." Hokuto began scooping up the cards (even the face-downs were only Fusion-related cards), and when they had them all, they chased after their friend.

When they finally found Masumi, she looked awful. She was huddled in a corner, legs pushed up so her knees mostly covered her face, but in spite of that, Hokuto and Yaiba could clearly see tears falling from her eyes. "Masumi…?" Hokuto asked nervously. Masumi seemed like she didn't even hear him.

"Masumi-chan!" A few voices said. The boys turned and saw three female students rushing up to them.

"Do you know what's going on here?" Hokuto asked.

One of the girls sighed. "…Marco-sensei's getting married."

"Oh." Both boys said, apparently not sure what that meant, but the sentence's context in relation to Masumi registered, and their confusion slowly faded into realization. "Ohhhhh…"

Yaiba then sighed. "Well, I can't say something like this wouldn't happen."

"Eh?" Hokuto wondered.

"I don't want to seem like an asshole here, but I saw this coming a mile away." Yaiba sighed, sipping his milkshake. "Masumi's crush on the guy was going to go nowhere. He's what, 24?"

"25, but close enough." A different girl said. "We tried to tell her about that, but she wouldn't listen."

"Kinda hard to blame her, though." The third girl spoke up. "Marco-sensei was the one who taught her everything she knows about Dueling and Fusion Summoning. It makes sense that she'd be attached to him."

"Probably not to this degree, though." Hokuto said, glancing at Masumi again.

Masumi wasn't paying attention to a thing any of them were saying in spite of being in earshot. All her brain could do was replay that memory like it was the only one there…

*Flashback*

Masumi walked into Marco's office with an odd posture about her, Marco not noticing her at first due to going over paperwork, but his student's hand being placed, or rather, slammed, on his desk got his attention. "Oh, Masumi-chan. Gomen-nasai. I didn't see you there. Give me just a moment."

He leaned down while on his chair to put his paperwork away in a filing drawer when Masumi just said it: "…Is it true?"

Marco, confused by the question, slowly shut the drawer and sat back up. "What do you mean?"

Masumi produced a picture of a rather beautiful silver-haired woman. "This girl… Have you been seeing her?"

"Um… where did you get that picture?" Marco asked, feeling a bit uneasy.

"The ring on her finger… Did you give it to her?" Masumi quizzed again, ignoring her teacher's question.

Remembering who he was talking to, Marco sighed. "Yes, I am. That woman is my fiancée. I thought that you, of all people, would've known that by now."

Shaking, Masumi's hand inadvertently crumpled the photo. Tears were forming in her eyes. "Why… How…?"

Marco grabbed Masumi's hand gently, making her look at him, and he sighed again. "I probably can't understand your pain, Masumi-chan, but I've known how you feel about me for quite some time." Masumi's eyes widened as Marco let go of her. "You're a talented girl, but you're also more impressionable than I realized. If you think I led you on, it was never my intention."

"But we were so close, sensei…" Masumi breathed. "You taught me everything I know about Dueling…"

"Yes… because I am your teacher." Marco told her. "As you know, I share a special bond with my students, and ours was the strongest of them all. But that bond stays strong because of my passion to teach the newer generation my skills in Fusion Summoning. And it was your eagerness to learn that made our bond the strongest. I would be lying if I said I considered you as only my student… but at the most, our bond was that of an inter-generational friendship."

Masumi felt her heart crack. Was he REALLY saying this? "S… Sensei…"

"Please, Masumi-chan, don't take this so hard. I realize that I should have told you this earlier, but I was dreading this outcome."  
>"But I made myself better for you!" Masumi cried. "I became the top student in the Fusion Course so you would notice me! Does this mean it was all for nothing?!"<p>

"Of course not!" Marco shot back. "The fact that you became as good as you are is a feat in and of itself! You don't need MY approval for such a thing! Masumi-chan, the thing I want most out of my students is to see them become stronger for the sake of being the best that they can be. Eventually, you will no longer need me, and you'll make a name for yourself."

"B-But you've been my main motivation! When you were captured, I spent tireless days searching for a way to free you!" Masumi pleaded. "My whole drive for being a Duelist was to be what you wanted… Doesn't that mean anything?"

"You ARE what I wanted, Masumi-chan. You became a strong Duelist whose skills might already surpass my own." Marco admitted. "You are my ideal student, and it's why, even more than our age difference, that I can't look at you as any more than a friend: I'd only be holding you back if I tried following you. Gomen-nasai, Masumi-chan."

Masumi's voice was caught in her throat. She couldn't speak even if she wanted to. She couldn't even process her own disbelief. All her brain could do was make her slowly leave the room, her eyes matching her favorite taunt: Dull. She eventually took off in a full sprint, rushing through the halls of LDS with tears trailing behind her, catching the attention of multiple other students, but she ignored them all.

The next week, Masumi never showed for classes for the first four days. Marco was worried about her, as were Hokuto and Yaiba, but she didn't speak to anyone, much less them. Halfway through the fifth day, Masumi finally worked up the nerve to return to school, but her mind still ached from having her hope of catching Marco's attention crushed. The sight she witnessed didn't help her: Marco walking with his fiancée, holding her hand. For reasons known only to her, she began following them, eventually listening in on their conversation.

"What is it, Marco?" The woman asked.

"I'm worried about Masumi-chan. She hasn't been in class all week." Marco replied. "I fear that I may have said the wrong thing."  
>"She's a durable girl. I've seen the way she can take punishment." His fiancée told him. "I'm sure she'll find a way to bounce back eventually. A Duelist of her level never stays down for long."<p>

Marco sighed. "I suppose you're right. Perhaps all I can do is hope she can accept the reality that I cannot love her like that."  
>If only Marco knew Masumi was right there, but the minute he heard even the slightest bit of noise and turned, the black-haired girl was gone, tearing through the school with reckless abandon.<p>

*End Flashback*

"Oi!" A voice followed by a finger snap knocked Masumi out of her trance, making her realize that Hokuto and Yaiba were standing in front of her. Hokuto was now holding two milkshakes and wasn't holding her cards anymore, while Yaiba's hand indicated he was the one who snapped his fingers.

However, Masumi lowered her head. "Go away…"

"Not an option, Masumi. We're not just gonna leave you like this." Hokuto told her.

"Leave me alone…"

"Please, Masumi-chan, seeing you like this isn't right!" One of the female students pleaded. No reaction from Masumi. Hokuto and Yaiba glanced at each other, Hokuto setting one of the shakes down. "Come on, Masumi-chan, don't be like this!"

Masumi immediately rose her head up with glare. "I SAID GO AWA-!

_**SLAP! SLAP!**_

"FUSION SLAP!" Her two friends' voices shouted as Masumi recoiled from the hits, one for each cheek. She turned to face her friends with wide eyes.

"Aren't you supposed to be a strong-willed girl? One who isn't afraid to speak her mind?" Yaiba asked. "Is this really enough to take you out? Being burned on a crush that even Hokuto knows is bogus?"

Hokuto's fist then bashed Yaiba's head. "Not now, Yaiba!" He yelled before turning to Masumi. "Masumi, this shouldn't get to you. Think about all you pulled off! Mastering so many ways to Fusion Summon, getting a bunch of powerful monsters…" He motioned to the girl holding Masumi's cards, who approached and held them out. "Are they worth tossing aside for this?"

Masumi stared at the cards, unwilling to take them. "He was… what made me want to use them. He was what made my eyes and my Deck shine…"

"Wasn't it you that told us that the most brilliant gem can shine on its own?" Yaiba asked, making Masumi gasp. She DID say that. "A lot of things need outside light to shine. Even the blade of a sword if it isn't polished enough. But a well-polished blade can seemingly gleam even in pure darkness."

"And sometimes, the light comes from within the object itself, like the light of a star in space." Hokuto added. "Masumi, you got far with outside light, but even the brightest gem will lose its luster if not looked after. So you've got to keep working on maintaining the sparkle and making sure the gem shines for as long as it can."

"We can do what we can by your side, but you gotta realize: You can still shine, but you gotta keep your head up and not let things get you down so much, y'know?" Yaiba said.

Masumi sniffled, looking back at her cards. The purple frames of the face-up monsters took her back through her memories of the advancements she made. She got so far, completed many challenges, and even took part in saving the world… and that was only part of her legacy. Slowly, she placed a hand on top of her cards, remembering their feel. How could she just throw them away like they were nothing? Her hand shook, but it finally took hold of the cards, taking them from her fellow student's grasp. Gazing at the front-and-center card, Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Dia, she held them to her chest, closing her eyes. "G… Gomen-nasai…" A few more tears fell from her eyes, but she immediately wiped them away, trying to be strong. "I can't… I can't end it all here. My eyes can't go dull now… I have to keep shining!"

Hokuto, Yaiba, and the female students smiled. "There's our friend." Hokuto said, reaching down and grabbing the third milkshake off the ground. "You're probably thirsty, Masumi, so we got you an extra one."

Masumi noticed the drink, taking it slowly. "…Arigatou." She took a big gulp of it.

"Easy, Masumi. You don't wanna get brain freeze, do you?" Yaiba joked, chuckling. Hokuto chuckled as well, and to their delight, a chuckle came from Masumi as well.

The girl finally stood up, looking at her cards again before putting them away to be sorted later, and she joined her friends as they left the area, separating from the three other girls. Masumi admitted she wasn't fully over Marco yet, but she had time to work on finding what it was she really wanted. That was something she was actually looking forward to telling Marco: That she'd make sure she shined even without him behind her.

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><p><strong>Vile: And there you have it: A little ficlet dump to try and get something out of me. If you guys liked this story, leave a review for me, but also take a look at my profile, and you'll see that I have a new poll set up. Clearly shipping wars are going to ignite all to HELL when it comes to Ensemble Darkhorse Masumi, so the poll has an easy (well, maybe not) question: Who would YOU pair her with? Cast your votes, and let's see who will dominate the shippers right out of the gate. Ja ne for now!<strong>

**Computer Voice: Vile, logging out.**


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